“Does it scare me, driving into nothing at 300kph? – Of course it does – I’m not an idiot.”

Without going to what I think is my limit. I always say that my ideal is to get pole with the minimum effort, and to win the race at the slowest speed possible.

I’m brave to say that I won’t take this sort of risk.

I don’t like to go over curbs, because I don’t want to be hard on the car.

A German team could be quite good. But maybe they are a little bit too convinced that they are the best.

So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport its the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

When I test I never go right to the limit. Only because when you are below the limit you can go at the same speed all day, and that’s the only way you can be absolutely sure about what you are testing.

Do you know, why I really love my helmet that much? Because it makes me 15 centimetres taller!

So I know at the beginning of the race, from all that I have analysed during the practice, whether I will win the race or not.

Sometimes it also helps you to understand the mentality of the people in the team a bit better.

I like the mentality of the Americans. It’s like when you talk about money.

I have always had this mentality because I hated to break anything on the car.

I think maybe the English don’t want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.

That is an important part of my success. Another big part of my success is that I hated not to finish a race.

I always work the same way, starting from the beginning of the weekend.

Maybe I am not French, maybe I am from nowhere.

In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place.

It’s the same thing that drives people to want to experience sexual pleasure or have one too many drinks.

This, is course, is not true. The wanton crucifixion of impulses, the unnecessary blocking and frustration of the drives and urges, are an evil that reflects itself in sophistication, ennui and boredom, dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and neurosis.

Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz – My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.

Each day is a drive through history.

Reasoning is the pastime of my whole household, and all this reasoning has driven out Reason.

Art can be very political but that can’t be the purpose of art, it can’t be the driving force. It isn’t with any of the books that I love, anyway.

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.